Chapter 193: Dividing the Westerlands

The horses' hooves moved slowly as the Lannister Heavy Cavalry legion pressed forward to the flat ground one hundred yards from the enemy.

Unlike the hollow lances used in jousting tournaments, the lances used by the lion house's heavy cavalry were all solid, capable of withstanding repeated use.

To avoid self-injury, the riders would release their weapons before colliding with the enemy, then retrieve them using long ropes tied to the lance shafts.

As for the nobles and wealthy Knights, they used lances that were easier to break; of course, these battlefield lances were still much harder than those used in tournaments.

A large number of Attendants were responsible for handing new lances to the Knights who had finished their charge.

While the fully equipped lion house army was lining up, the opposing Riverlands Army was naturally not idle.

"Fall back, everyone, and form up behind the Caltrops."

To deal with the Western Lands' cavalry legion, the King had once ordered the production of a batch of simple Caltrops.

This was a type of wooden military equipment, made by crossing and fixing wooden pillars into a frame, with blades and spikes embedded on the frame; it could be used to block gates to stop pedestrians from passing, or in battle to stop and delay enemy horses.

After the King's order arrived, several Riverlands nobles loudly relayed the command.

Facing this kind of head-on heavy cavalry charge, based on the experience of the King and several core nobles, the only way was to use Caltrops to block the charging cavalry and then have the infantry surround them for a hard fight.

Considering that once the charge began, the riders in the second row and beyond could not stop quickly, this plan was actually very feasible.

As long as the first row hit the Caltrops, the momentum of the entire lion house heavy cavalry legion would be largely contained.

The situation was indeed as Arthur and the others had expected; shortly after the enemy began their hundred-yard charge, the Riverlands Army successfully retreated a few meters, letting dozens of simple Caltrops line up in front of the formation.

The distance between the two sides was so close that the Riverlanders could even see the small movements of the Western Lands nobles trying to slow down their mounts.

"What is that?" asked the old Knight Kevan, who was also charging with the army, in confusion.

He guessed the purpose of this wooden military equipment, but it was too late to stop the cavalry that had already accelerated.

Adam the Oarman, who was specifically commanding the heavy cavalry legion, was much more adaptable; with only one arm, he shouted, "Flank to the sides, those in the middle who can't dodge, accelerate and charge through."

Although the last-minute change could not alter the fate of the cavalry in the middle of the first row who were sent to their deaths, after smashing through the wooden equipment, the cavalry in the rows behind would have a much easier time.

One hundred yards, or three hundred feet, passed in a flash; only a dozen or so cavalry on the flanks executed Sir Adam's order, while many of the warhorses in the middle crashed directly into the spikes of the Caltrops, throwing the riders on their backs in front of the Riverlands Army.

Fortunately, some of the Caltrops were smashed open, squeezing out a few paths of survival for the subsequent Lannister cavalry.

The slaughter began there; besides King Arthur I in his golden armor and golden cloak, Prince Oberyn, who had entered the battlefield wearing only cloth armor, also attracted the attention of those who had the spare capacity to observe the situation.

This Dornish Prince did not even wear an iron helmet, and with only a wooden Spear in his hand, he engaged the Lannister heavy cavalry whose momentum had been contained.

The agility of his posture, the strangeness of his Spear thrusts, and the nimbleness of his footwork left everyone around him dumbfounded.

Of course, King Arthur I, who had no such concerns, was equally astonishing; his golden Jiu Jiu Jiu Jiu Dadao flew up and down, as smooth and fluid as a fish in water or an eagle in the sky.

In the battlefield of nearly eight thousand men between the two main armies, only these two flashes of yellow made others start to dodge.

At the same time, Garlan Tyrell, who had led his troops over, also ordered his cavalry to join the southern battlefield.

The first charge of the five thousand unengaged cavalry tore open a gap; the Western Lands infantry had been fighting the soldiers of the Tyrell, Beesbury, and other houses for a long time and were already exhausted, so when the Reach cavalry arrived, the southern battlefield changed drastically.

Some of the Platoon leaders who could still suppress their men began to gather soldiers and attempted to retreat toward the military camp in the west, while most of the soldiers who could still move either surrendered or fled in all directions.

The northern battlefield.

"It really is the Reach cavalry; their infantry runs slowly, they are probably still on the road."

The bald Innes grew in confidence and immediately ordered the remaining one thousand elite infantry to press forward.

"Charge, all of you charge, take the Western Lands' left army, and the brothers' lands and titles will be secured."

Folei Marquess shouted.

He and his twelfth brother, Lothar Frey, had reached an agreement to pledge loyalty to the Dragonrider, but they needed to use extra rewards to win over other kinsmen, especially several powerful brothers and nephews who were not of their same maternal line.

Of course, Innes himself also had his own little schemes.

The Frey house was resisting the Western Lands' left army alone; if a few nephews died in battle, they could use the lands and castles they were entitled to in exchange for something else.

For example, the Riverrun Protector.

The current Riverrun had not yet pledged loyalty to the Iron Throne!

The Blackfish Brynden Tully was even still flying the banner of the King in the North and the Trident.

After the last forces of the Frey house joined the battle, the northern battlefield also began to change, and the scales of victory slowly tilted toward Arthur I.

The slaughter across the field lasted until the afternoon; under the multiple blows of Casterly Rock being lost, the Reach infantry arriving, and the commander Kevan being captured, a considerable number of Western Lands soldiers began to surrender.

The position of the main army where the King was located was actually the last place where the battle ended.

After his Golden Cloak was stained dark red with blood, Arthur I realized that victory had been achieved.

The first to crowd around the King were Podrick Payne and several other Attendants, followed by the nobles and Knights.

Everyone spoke as loudly as possible and squeezed toward the King's eyes, so that the traces of battle on their bodies would enter Arthur I's line of sight.

"I hacked down six Western Lands heavy cavalrymen."

"Don't talk nonsense, I've already exhausted myself killing four enemies; besides His Majesty the King, who else could kill more than five enemies?"

"What, are you ignoring Prince Oberyn's record? He stabbed more than a dozen people..."

While some nobles boasted about themselves, they began to disparage the nobles around them.

As for the King, he wanted to see Kevan.

"Where is our biggest captive?"

Arthur I asked loudly.

There were simply too many noble Knights around him trying to leave an impression, and he had to be as loud as possible to make his order heard by the right people.

The lord of Wayfarer's Rest, Count Karyl Vance, answered the King's question.

"Your Majesty, Sir Kevan is currently knighting the Will who captured him; this Lannister insists that a commoner cannot capture him, so the lucky Will is about to become a Knight."

The crowd burst into laughter; this might be the only chance for Kevan to save face.

"You all step aside first, bring him over."

Arthur ordered.

The act of a conqueror ennobling a captive is truly not rare; in the Wars of the Roses of my past life on Blue Star, such absurd actions were common.

Thus, the nobles crowding before the King parted ways, and Kevan, bound hand and foot, appeared before Arthur I.

"I cannot fathom how you managed to take Casterly Rock."

Although covered in dust and bearing minor wounds, Kevan still held his head high with great fortitude.

"You must ask your nephew Tyrion; he personally designed the sewage system of Casterly Rock."

At this, Kevan was somewhat surprised, "Was Tyrion not the assassin left behind by Stannis..."

He had already ordered a death statue crafted for Tyrion, never expecting his nephew to still be alive.

"Are you still unclear about what kind of person your niece Cersei is? You dare to believe her words?"

Arthur chuckled, then asked: "Has his knighting of Will been completed?"

Any Knight can dub an Attendant as a Knight while anointing them with Holy Oil, but in emergencies, even those who are not Attendants can be dubbed Knights, and it does not even require anointing with Holy Oil at a Sept of the Seven.

The Knight title of Jorah Mormont, Lord of Bear Island in The North, came about just like that.

The honest and reliable Podrick replied: "Your Grace, it has been completed."

He even felt a bit of envy and jealousy toward Will; he himself was still an Attendant, yet his subordinate had become a Knight.

"That will do. Take him away and keep him well-guarded; we shall go see Garlan first," Arthur said with a resonant voice.

One day later, in the Westerlands Army camp, inside the Commander's tent.

Because Casterly Rock had been the ancestral seat of House Lannister for eight thousand years, even though it had been taken by his own side, the King did not dare to stay inside, resting instead in the camp outside the city.

At this moment, all the nobles from the Riverlands, the Reach, and Dorne, influential Knights, and even the captured great lords of the Westerlands had all attended this expanded meeting.

Its theme was singular: how to partition the Westerlands.

"In view of the atrocious performance during the Usurper's War and the two rounds of the War of the Five Kings, the Lannisters and the various great houses of the Westerlands must be severely punished!"

The King first set the tone for the meeting.

Although he was a fake Targaryen, the legitimacy of his throne was derived from House Targaryen, and the nobles who supported him mostly looked at the fact that he "had dragons."

Therefore, Arthur I still had to settle accounts with the rebels from the Usurper's War.

With the Westerlands being punished, those who benefited were naturally the Riverlands houses who were the first to support the King and the Reach houses who contributed the most.

Consequently, the nobles from these two regions spoke up one after another to denounce the people of the Westerlands.

"Utterly devoid of shame, without a shred of morality."

"No noble with any sense of honor would kill children and women."

"Having rebelled several times, they must be demoted and have their lands reduced."

Duke Tywin's opportunism during the two wars only ensured the greatest interests of his house, a point the nobles of the Riverlands and the Reach could not criticize, so their firepower was concentrated on the killing of Rhaegar's wife Elia and the two innocent children.

Such rhetoric quickly spread throughout the tent; not only the captured Westerlanders but even the meritorious Tyrion felt a loss of face.

"Quiet!" the King shouted.

Seeing that the nobles of both regions and Prince Oberyn all supported severe punishment for the Westerlands, Arthur I slowly laid out his conditions.

"The Landed Knight Luo Qi family shall be stripped of their fief, and Clegane's Keep shall be inherited by Sandor Clegane."

This was the punishment for the murderer.

But someone raised a question.

Garlan Tyrell asked: "I recall that Sandor is of the Kingsguard; how can he inherit the fief of a Landed Knight?"

The King, sitting at the head of the table, replied: "The establishment of the Kingsguard is a tradition of the ages, with no precedent for dismissal, and Sandor filled the vacancy of Ser Barristan Selmy, which should not count, so he is merely an ordinary guard."

Garlan nodded and bowed, complying with the King's arrangement.

Ordering Podrick to pour him a cup of wine and taking a sip to moisten his throat, Arthur I continued to announce amidst the expectant gazes of hundreds:

"As for the various families of the Westerlands, House Crakehall of Oxcross shall be demoted to a Viscount house; apart from the twenty villages paid as compensation to House Oakheart, the remaining territory shall be divided into five parts, with Crakehall retaining one, and the rest to be taken out to ennoble the families of the Riverlands and the Reach."

By general standards, the fief of a Landed Knight usually consists of only one village, so they are not called lords.

A Barony basically consists of seven or eight to over a dozen villages, with a population ranging from one or two thousand to five or six thousand.

As for a Viscountcy, it is about five times larger than a Barony, starting at forty or fifty villages, with a population ranging from ten or twenty thousand to seventy or eighty thousand.

Larger Earldoms can be called great houses; in the densely populated Riverlands, the smallest Earldom has a population of about one hundred thousand, and like the complete Harrenhal territory, its subjects might number two or three hundred thousand.

As for great houses like the Freys who can challenge the position of their liege lord, the subjects are estimated to be three hundred thousand.

Most of the territory of House Crakehall is in the forest, so the population should be far less than that of a Riverlands Earl, but it should still be around seventy or eighty thousand.

Divided into five, the subjects would be roughly at the entry level of a Viscount house, but the land would be somewhat more.

"Golden Tooth shall be removed from the Westerlands and placed under the jurisdiction of the liege lord of the Riverlands."

"House Lydden and House Marbrand shall be demoted to Viscounts; Deep Den and Castamere belonging to these two houses shall be divided into four parts, and apart from the one part they retain, the rest shall also be awarded to the meritorious ministers of the two regions."

"As for other Earldom houses of the Westerlands, they shall not be demoted, but their lands must be reduced; places like Silverhill, Cornfield, The Crag, Hornvale, Feastfires, and Sarsfield must at the very least yield the territory of a Viscountcy to be granted to the meritorious ministers I designate."

The demotion and land reduction of these Earldom-level houses concerned the vital interests of the nobles of the Riverlands and the Reach, so Arthur announced these points first.

Sure enough, upon hearing that there were so many Viscountcies to be awarded, the eyes of the nobles from both regions lit up.

"Your Grace is wise!"

"The disloyal Westerlands families must be severely sanctioned."

"We absolutely support the orders of the Iron Throne!"

Seeing that his ideas had gained the support of a considerable number of nobles, the King's courage grew.

"Finally, there is the punishment for House Lannister; all gold mines belonging to House Lannister, except for Casterly Rock, must be handed over to the Iron Throne to become the private property of the royal family, including the mines of Golden Tooth and the gold mines of Castamere."

Gold mines are the lifeblood of the Lion house; once the gold mines are taken away, the power of the Lannisters will be far less than before.

"In view of the vast quantities of iron, copper, and lead mines in the Westerlands, the original Westerlands families must also execute one punishment, which is to provide the royal family with a batch of fine Iron Armor; the specific style and quantity will be decided after I consult with the Small Council," Arthur I said.

Arthur I said.

This is the key to forming a royal standing army; the iron-forging techniques of the Westerlands are not low, which is just right for taking the opportunity to produce a batch of fine armor.

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly votes.

(End of this chapter)